[Feedback Friday] Why Your Stroke Rate Needs To Be Higher Than 40

In this episode we look at a swimmer who wants to increase the distance she can comfortably swim and increase her speed.
We look at why she will need to:
- Exhale from her nose and blow out more assertively
- Feel very wide with her arm extension to keep it straight
- Enter earlier to improve the catch and starting catch position
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[@topaz1874]

The video editing is amazing 👍

[@leivajoaquin4006]

Your videos are really helpful and the way you explain is clear. I think you should do videos about the other 3 strokes with the same format, it would be very helpful

[@mkim7830]

very helpful easy to understand with comparison popup shots

[@Fabdanc]

Is anyone ever swimming... and you've got a good feel for the water and cruising right a long, but then you come off a turn and just lose your feel?... And just when you lose that feel, Brenton's voice pop's in your head with some training advice from one of these videos and you get your feel back? Def a good body of work with these vids, very helpful.

[@stephenjeffreys4219]

Another great vid with so much information - please provide the link to the edition from 3 months back about nose-breathing - no wonder Im always exhausted after 50 metres!

[@drewa1999]

Another excellent clip Brenton! Thank you! Though your Aussie accent makes pull buoy sound like pool boy!

[@thibod07]

Nice swimmer. Being strong and tall is such an advantage she will eventually become a fast swimmer if she keeps at it. On the video she does not grab any water at all. She must feel so frustrated when she swims. I know the feeling. Great video thank you for sharing.

[@rodolfocaballero5324]

thanks great video greetings from mexico

[@33Jenesis]

I am a novice and am working on increasing front crawl distance and endurance. This video is helpful for me to not doing the same she did. Every day I use paddles for about 350 meters to strengthen and fine tune rhythm.

[@Lacehairwigs]

This was a good one

[@kvsdude]

I had an idea for an analysis - Mark Spitz - there's a bunch of good footage of the Munich games still out there.

[@davizilloh96]

Can we send u our strokes? Ty!😊

[@asadzaman2211]

My breathing is quite shallow even when I’m out of the water. When I’m under water I do breathe out through my nose, but it’s hard to do the trickle breathing. What usually happens is that I exhale everything through my nose. If I want to get that last puff of breath out, I can do it from my mouth but not my nose. Do you have any suggestions to learn trickle breathing through the nose with the last expulsion of air through the nose as well?

[@anh096]

hi, I'm having trouble finding the link for the nose exhaling video you show in this training video. Could you please put the link on the comments again? Many thanks for your videos. They are really helping me to finally learn how to do freestyle properly.

[@WILL989]

Norma Hughes kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5zFqoWFpLKiqLc

[@evanmacdougall9715]

This is totally me. Really slow stroke rate. No wonder I struggle to keep my legs up. But, if I try to stroke any faster I can't get enough air. When I hit that super low stroke rate, I can swim for a long time, but I can't swim too far because I'm swimming so slow. When I bring my stroke rate up a little bit, the effort kills me and I'm stopping every 100-200 meters to rest. What are good drills to do to brink up my stroke rate? Will more speed work eventually bring up my bottom threshold? This morning I swam with a swim snorkel and practiced a faster stroke rate and had one of my fastest sessions, yet, and swam 1600m like it was easy. But, at the very end I took off the snorkel for the last 100m and struggled mightily even with a slower stroke rate. :-(

[@UnwarrierChicken]

Maybe the pull buoy exercicie he mentions, should requiere less air as you don't need to bring all that oxigen to the legs. Hand paddles should help keep momentum if you have the requiered upper body strength. 3 years later I imagine you are going to probably already be a pro swimmer hehe.

[@TheThreshershark]

How do you count the stroke rate? Each Hand separately or both hands added together? i.e. 50 strokes/min. with one hand seems quite high for me or is it 25 left and 25 right hand?

[@TheThreshershark]

O.k. I saw the answer below with the Garmin, I wear a Suunto which counts 32 strokes on one arm, which then means 64 strokerate ;-)

[@fibi69]

I have to use a nose clip or the chlorine make my nose run all day. I constantly let air of off my lungs but through my mouth slowly as I am swimming. I did not realise I was gasping or getting more tired because of Co2. I will definitely pay attention to my head breathing position, as I have noticed I was looking to far up and back. So many things to remember.....

[@misterari]

I think you have sinusitis. I do and the runny nose after a swim actually helps with clearing up the cavity and funny I am addicted to that feeling of relief so I swim a lot

[@Matt-cp9wh]

keep swimming without a clip. you get used to it

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

Reallly struggling with this. Stroke rate is so slow, but if I speed up there is no time for the pull

[@mariocarrillo9969]

Can you explain SWOLF and how to improve it/what an average swimmer trying to improve should work towards?

[@thinkislamcheckmychannel]

Did you find out?

[@jeenjeanjeen]

I swim in a 25 yard pool and am currently doing sets like 10x50 on the minute where I finish each rep at or slightly before 45 seconds. It takes me on avg 35 strokes to complete the 50 which (if my math is right) comes to 45 spm. If I'm doing 5x100, the numbers dont change much in terms of the time it takes me to finish each rep (1:30) and similar stroke rate. I'm short at 5'3", and I'm wondering if my stroke rate suggests that I'm gliding more than I should. I feel pretty comfortable with my stroke now, but I also want to better my time. What to do?

[@dbo4506]

I swim on average about 35sec per 50 interval. Slightly faster if I’m going all out. I consistently hit 29/30 strokes per minute

[@iangraham9050]

My stroke rate 2 days ago was 21. For me to reach 40 sounds insane, but I'll give it a go. I'll try 24 this week, 24-26 next week, 26-28 the week after and so on...

[@mattystewart8]

These videos are so helpful but i still struggle with breathing in the water!!! I have to stop after two lengths of a 25m pool and its so depressing. I either cant get my breath right or i swallow (not inhale) a crap tonne of water! I dont know what im doing wrong. I try the big exhale, i try the turn my head to the side and move my mouth to the side. Its really really difficult

[@zinnia20207]

I gave up and got a power breather snorkel. I'm not in competition, just trying to exercise, improve stroke and live longer. Not sure if it helps most people, or if it would be recommended, but I have gone from barely able to swim freestyle 28.432 meters to 1 1/2 miles every morning.

[@greghill6117]

Her pull is not strong enough especially for open water tri’s. Work on strength (drills, gym, fast twitch) then tempo. Also get a tempo timer and slowly work up cadence. But yeah I see open water currents and chop winning against a slow cadence like that.

[@gingerbadjie9670]

Thanks Bro. Can you do a video on swimmers rotator cuff injury rehab in the pool ( not on land) please?

[@cd431]

Hi Ginger. I know you're asking for pool rehab. I just wanted to say, though, that I spent a long time trying to rehab a nasty rotator cuff injury and nothing in the pool or on dry land worked. That is, until I started doing barbell overhead press. I added 5 pounds every single time I went and my shoulders got incredibly strong. Something about the movement also ended up fixing my rotator cuff. I do it about twice a week now and not only am I swimming faster, but my shoulders feel so much more stable and stronger. Best of luck to you! Hope you feel better!

[@gingerbadjie9670]

@@cd431 THANK YOU!! I am doing a weights programme and building up slowly as still in a lot of pain with any overhead or lateral movement. I wonder if i use a bench and try it that way, it may be A less painful and B build strength. Thanks again, v, helpful xox

[@GavinHarte]

Just to be sure when you talk about stroke rate of 55 you mean a left+right arm? Garmin shows me has having 35 but it only measures one arm. My tempo trainer is set to 70bpm though.

[@EffortlessSwimming]

We’re talking left arm is 1, right arm is 1. So 40 strokes per minute not 40 stroke cycles

[@GavinHarte]

@@EffortlessSwimming ok thanks. So my 70 strokes or 35 cycles is already in a decent zone. I've been working on pushing it up slowly this year and my times have improved as a consequence.

[@emboli]

I’ma bit puzzled. Why does it look like she isn’t pulling any water at all? Is it the camera angle? Even with a slow strike rate some swimmers zip forward a lot further than her

[@fabian13333]

Any drill to increase stroke rate? Or any tips

[@DanielMooreDJ]

Jeson Derik would also like to see this

[@billybob6604]

dont over rotate

[@billybob6604]

and start kicking

[@DanielMooreDJ]

Billy Bob I am a triathlete and triathletes hardly kick at all to save our legs for cycling and running

[@WilliamJarrott]

Move your arms faster

[@Matt-cp9wh]

the stroke of this lady actually looks really good too

[@westerling8436]

Uhm NO

[@Numeriwar]

Its like shes not even pushing the water

[@2000triathlete]

50 to 55 SR? Jeez! Mine is 35 according to my Garmin.

[@EffortlessSwimming]

That will be equivalent to 70

[@2000triathlete]

Effortless Swimming: ok, that makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out.

[@danoleary6910]

@@EffortlessSwimming When you're talking about SR, you should perhaps make that clear. My Garmin tells me it's average 30spm, which I read as 60spm (30 two-arm cycles). When I saw 40, I didn't have a clue whether I was way under or way over :-/

[@LucianoDevoto]

I feel your pain girl... lol

[@MrTubebox1]

Looks like she is also overrotating, too. Especially when exhaling.